I'm having a real day of crisis. Here's the crux of it: News is coming out that a fairly substantial portion of the Democratic vote in both Ohio and Texas was Republican cross over for Hillary - i.e. the Rush Limbaugh edict to "keep the Dems from nominating a candidate" strategy. But I'm not angry at the Rethugs. I expect these things from them. Therefore, they don't disappoint me. However, the Democratic Party finally gets the most inspirational and transformational candidate since 1960 - one who has brought voters out in record numbers, converted some Republicans, drawn heavily from Independents, increased the youth vote by a staggering amount, has a 50-state campaign strategy, fund-raised the largest numbers in the history of Presidential politics - 90% of it from US, THE PEOPLE and not corporations or PACs or lobbyists, someone with a 21st century face, history and ideas - and do they rush to embrace him as our Ronald Reagan? No, they mutely stay in the shadows, allowing Hillary Clinton to throw US, THE PEOPLE, and the Democratic Party in general, under the bus of history.
Hillary is embracing those false victories, and continuing to run, even though the only way statistically that she could even equal (not surpass) Obama in the delegate vote is if she won every single one of the last 16 contests by 30% or MORE. Not only is she continuing to run, but she will take the next 7 weeks to throw every piece of excrement she can at Obama so that even if he does win the nomination, he will be too battle-scarred to win over a John McCain who will have had a few months to do nothing but happily unify and strengthen his support.
Hillary's only way to win now, is to either get the FL and MI delegates seated at the convention, or to woo the superdelegates to put her over the top. Both of which will result in, at the very least, a serious deterioration of the numbers we've seen voting Democratic in these primaries and caucuses, and at worst, in another Chicago 7 scenario. Both of which will set the party back generations, when we had the opportunity with this election, and this Obama candidate, to push the party ahead 50 years - to restructure the party, to trade in our Edsel for a hybrid.
At this point, even if Barack stays the course and wins this thing in June in Puerto Rico on pledged delegates and doesn't get a stampede of superdelegates running over him to get to Hillary, we'll still be sending a bloodied, marginalized and demoralized Obama, characterized by Hillary herself as "less qualified than John McCain" to run against a confident, well-rested John "war hero" McCain who will have had a three month jump on us. Hillary has said she intends to show Obama to be a "paper tiger" and a "blank page" over the next weeks, so that's who we will have running against McCain. A blank page. A paper tiger. A man who a prominent member of his own party declares is "less qualified" than the opponent.
The media is all too willing to snatch up any and every tidbit Hillary tosses out there, because that what sells. The MSM LOVES the fights and the manipulations and the negativity and the scorched earth politics and tactics she is using because it gives them scandals, headlines and sells ad time. (No matter what SNL or HRC says, the MSM LOVE HER.) The fact that the Party hasn't sought to at least TRY and control Hillary and her attacks that actually hurt the party as a whole, DISGUSTS me. So, here I am, not disappointed in the Republican Party, but literally ready to puke over my own party. My own sniveling, pathetic, powerless, namby-pamby, crappy, disorganized, LOSER of a party.
The entire above scenario has me so disillusioned and dispirited, that I'm starting to lose hope. I really feel today like this country is so married to the status quo that we'd rather cling tooth and nail to the 20th Century and the way things are now, than to move forward in any way. I almost hope Hillary does win the nomination. She'll lose. I guarantee it, because her negatives have always put her under 47% with the general populace, and after the garbage she's pulled this primary season, she's got a lot of democrats now who will not plug their noses and simply vote for her as a lesser of two evils in November. The tremendous youth vote we've seen so far will be cut in half, at least. An exit poll yesterday showed that the 30% of new 30 year old and under Hispanic voters that voted for Obama yesterday will NOT vote for Hillary. 80% said they'd stay home if Obama isn't the nominee in November. The Dems and Indys that Obama is pulling will go back to McCain. Hillary will lose, and we'll have Senator PTSD as our 3rd Bush term. At least we'll finally be DONE with Hillary, and maybe the Dems can move on past the Clintons and develop a real strategy for THIS century, and not keep pretending it's 1992.
Of course, the down side will be that we'll be writing diaries and blogs in 4 years about how we STILL don't have hate crimes laws on the books, civil unions or gay marriage, universal healthcare will be a punchline of this election, and the housing crisis will be still around, the Iraq war will still be in full swing, and we'll probably be in Iran, too. I honestly believe that even if Hillary could eke out a 51% win, we'll still be seeing these same things in 4 years because the Clintons have made a lot of enemies in Washington, and they will not be making deals with her. She will never have a mandate. Rachel Maddow said last night on MSNBC, lest we forget, that Bill Clinton managed to get himself elected for two terms, at the expense of the Democratic party. We hemorragghed Congressional seats and lost countless local Dem elections with Bill at the helm of the party. Because he polarized the country. He was the beginning of this red state/blue state nonsense. And he couldn't even get Gore elected after him at a time when we had record surplus, a robust economy, were at peace, and had set a stage for a perfect, seamless transition. Except that people didn't trust anyone or anything associated with the Clintons and wanted them gone. People gave the Clintons a huge message in 2000 that this country was DONE with them. Bill Clinton gave us George W. And Hillary's going to give us McCain. I'm beginning now to realize that the Clintons may be one of the worst things that ever happened to the Dem party.
I'm losing hope in this country, and in politics and I'm questioning why I should even bother. I know it's because today is that day after and I'm particularly fragile. But I am having fundamental doubts about whether working within the system is possible. I'm starting to see why Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale didn't think it was. I was listening to the reports coming out of Seattle about the houses the ELF burned and thinking that that's not such a bad thing. It's brutal, but effective. This is one of those years that defines who we are, and I'm wondering who I am and what I want, and how do I pursue it. Is this unifying, stay positive, "hope for the best in the future and work hard for it in the present" idealism possible against the odds of those who will just relentlessly pursue what they want and burn anything that gets in their way? Do the ends justify the means? And if so, should I be willing to do whatever it takes to affect the change that I want? My apologies to Ghandi, Nelson and Martin, but I'm beginning to think they could be wrong...